ICRC starts rescue of stranded residents

AFP

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has started efforts to extract some 30 civilians hiding in a building in downtown Marawi City for fear of the Maute group.

John Louie Balagot, assistant Cabinet secretary of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), said the ICRC extraction efforts were ongoing.

Go-signal

“The latest development is that the ICRC already has clearance from Malacañang and will talk to the military next. The ICRC also has a go-signal from the other side,” Balagot said, referring to the Maute group.

If initial efforts failed to push through on Saturday, the ICRC might be able to move in today, he added.

The civilians in hiding included children, construction workers who had gone to Marawi to earn better wages, and workers of former politician Alibasia Knife Lucman.  A driver for the Lucman family, which owns the compound where the civilians are hiding, said the family decided to move out on Monday when they sensed  that armed men were coming.

Tata Lucman, a member of the family, said they intentionally left their workers behind because it was more dangerous for them to leave the compound as gunmen from the Maute group were roaming the streets and setting up checkpoints to flush out Christians.

Trapped

Aleta Esperat, whose husband, Jimmy, was among those in hiding since May 23, said she hoped help would not come too late for him and the 29 others. She said she had lost contact with her husband on Saturday morning.

Joy Marjalino, whose husband, construction worker Romar, was among those trapped, said the last message she got on Saturday morning was that “the Maute people were trying to destroy the gate of the building where the civilians are hiding.”

Another trapped civilian, Jimmy Sakay, had earlier warned that their mobile phones were running low on power and their only means of communication might soon get cut off.  It would then get more  difficult to locate them, he said.

Cell phones not ringing

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said he had tried to call the numbers provided by the trapped civilians on Saturday “but none of (the phones) were ringing anymore.

“We have sent rescue teams (and) we keep sending people to locate areas where there are trapped civilians. We hope to (find) and rescue them all,” Hataman said.

Presidential Peace Adviser Jesus Dureza meanwhile told the Inquirer that Armed Forces Chief Gen. Eduardo Año had pledged to take care of the trapped civilians.